THAT'S TRUE LOVE
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Dad and I were sitting on the edge of field with a hill that rolled down in front of us. The sun was just breaking the eastern horizon and we could hear a gobbler sounding off just below us. He was answering every call I made. Dad was just to my right with his gun at the ready.
A short time later I could see the top of the strutting gobblers tail coming up the hill. As he got his eyes on the decoy, that was 20 yards in front of us, he quickened his pace and within a few seconds he was strutting next to the decoy. I whispered to dad to "take him". He whispered back, "im not going to shoot him, you'll have to". We went back and forth, arguing, in whispered tones, until the gobbler turned his back on us. Then dad set his shotgun down and said, "if you don't shoot him, we'll let him walk away.
We had gotten up too early and season was too short to pass the opportunity. I lifted my gun and harvested a great turkey. I really wanted dad to take that bird, but he, in turn, wanted me to have it. What a great memory of a great morning.
I have recently read somewhere that, "Love is when the other person's happiness is more important than your own."
I would go one step further, I would say that the love spoken of by Paul in 1 Corinthians is when you look out for another's happiness first and it fulfills you.
In John 13:34 Jesus said, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another". In John 15 He says it again... And in Ephesians 5 men are commanded to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for it.
So how do we love like that? That love is Agape love and is truly loving another more than yourself. This love is not emotion, its action. "As Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for it"... This is true love.
Read the rest of 1 Corinthians 13 and you will again see all that love is and isn't.
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